New Mission

Orochimaru's guess had not been wrong. If anything, he had underestimated the Sand Shinobi's methods.

Just after Konoha's ninja returned to the main camp, they received intelligence that the Konoha Field Hospital in the rear had come under attack and suffered devastating losses. The hospital camp, along with all its equipment and medicine, had been destroyed. More than half of the medical ninja had been killed or injured, and only twenty to thirty percent had managed to escape alive.

Orochimaru's face darkened upon receiving the report, while the other ninja were filled with outrage. Attacking an enemy hospital on the battlefield was indeed an exceptionally ruthless tactic.

Of course, ninja were a profession that stopped at nothing. When driven to desperation, ninja villages could even send children under ten onto the battlefield. Attacking a hospital was nothing more than child's play by comparison.

The problem was that medical treatment was the most crucial link in fighting the Sand Shinobi. Sunagakure was the village most skilled in poison in the entire Shinobi World. If a Sand Shinobi puppeteer did not carry seven or eight lethal poisons, their peers would laugh at them in the street.

It could be said that this move by the Sand Shinobi had struck the snake at its vital point, hitting Konoha's weakness in one blow.

"Pass down the order. For the time being, our ninja squads will take a defensive stance. Also, report to the village and request support in the form of medical ninja and medical supplies. In the short term, the Sand Shinobi will definitely intensify their offensives and provocations. I hope everyone can restrain themselves. Once the village's reinforcements arrive, we should be able to turn this situation around."

Orochimaru assigned the tasks in an orderly fashion. The camp's medical system had largely collapsed, and they had just fought a major battle against Iwagakure. Even though Konoha had won decisively, it had still suffered losses. For the time being, they could only avoid the Sand Shinobi's edge.

Afterward, Orochimaru turned his gaze to Uchiha Feiyu and said, "Feiyu, I have a mission for you as well. I hope you can sever Sunagakure's supply lines and disrupt their logistics as much as possible."

Uchiha Feiyu blinked and put on an innocent expression. "Isn't that mission a little too difficult? I'm just a ninja who graduated from the academy a year ago. I'm afraid it'll be hard for me to carry out a mission like that properly!"

Was it really so easy to head into the Land of Wind and cut off their supply lines? Of the ten ninja who usually carried out such missions, having three return alive was already considered lucky. More often than not, over a hundred ninja were sent in, and only three or five battered survivors came back!

Although Uchiha Feiyu had some confidence in his current strength, heading to the Land of Wind to deal with the Sand Shinobi was still quite dangerous.

Uchiha Feiyu had already made up his mind. If Orochimaru truly insisted on sending him to the Land of Wind to kill enemies, then he could only go there and slack off at a leisurely pace. Once he reached the Land of Wind, Orochimaru would not be able to keep an eye on him anyway. Wouldn't it be up to him how he carried out the mission?

When the time came, he could just claim that he had gotten lost, or that his luck was bad and he simply could not find any Sand Shinobi transport squads. It was not as if Orochimaru could chop him to pieces over it.

Hearing Uchiha Feiyu's evasive words, the Jonin in the camp wore all manner of expressions. Did he have no conscience saying that? Had he forgotten the hundreds of ninja who had died by his hand?

Still, after Uchiha Feiyu's reminder, the other ninja thought back on it and felt a little alarmed. A year after graduating from the academy, he had already slaughtered so many people on the battlefield. This Uchiha brat was terrifying, whether in talent or mental state.

Orochimaru felt a headache coming on as well. This brat was far too slippery, but Uchiha Feiyu's combat power was indeed something the entire Konoha camp needed right now.

With that in mind, Orochimaru said, "In that case, I'll allow you to select three ninja from the camp to assist you with the mission. There shouldn't be any problem with that now, right?"

Uchiha Feiyu pondered it briefly. If the three ninja he selected were well matched, they could indeed greatly reduce the danger of this mission.

Of course, with three subordinates, it would be harder to slack off during the mission. He would have to genuinely fight several battles against those Sand Shinobi in the Land of Wind.

In the end, it was the souls and lives of those Sand Shinobi that moved Uchiha Feiyu. He had already accumulated nearly three hundred Iwagakure Ninja souls. If he gathered some Sand Shinobi souls as well, he would surely be able to exchange them for an ability he wanted from the Demonic Path Inheritance Compendium.

Besides, if things truly became dangerous, he could always abandon the three subordinates and run away by himself...

True to his word, Orochimaru directly handed Uchiha Feiyu the files of every Special Jonin and Chunin in the main camp, allowing him to choose for himself.

Jonin were out of the question. There were only a dozen or so in the camp altogether, each with their own post, and none could leave. Besides, Uchiha Feiyu would not find them easy to command.

The strength and abilities of Special Jonin were not necessarily much weaker than those of Jonin. Many Special Jonin were stuck at that rank solely because of political factors; in terms of ability, they had long been qualified to advance to Jonin.

After reviewing the list, Uchiha Feiyu first picked out Yamanaka Seiichi, his companion from the previous mission. He then selected a Special Jonin from the Hyuga Branch Family. For the final slot, he chose a Special Jonin who also practiced Medical Ninjutsu.

Professional medical ninja rarely went onto the battlefield, but quite a few ninja also studied Medical Ninjutsu. Some ninja were even more proficient in the Medical Ninjutsu they studied than ordinary medical ninja.

It was simply bad luck. Uchiha Feiyu had killed so many ninja, yet not one of them possessed advanced Medical Ninjutsu. The most capable among them only knew simple hemostatic and healing techniques.

After looking over his choices, Orochimaru waved a hand and approved Uchiha Feiyu's request, then ordered the three of them to head to the Land of Wind the next day to carry out the mission.

At the camp entrance, Uchiha Feiyu stood with Yamanaka Seiichi and looked at his other two subordinates. "We'll be carrying out the mission soon, so let's introduce ourselves. My name is Uchiha Feiyu. I specialize in swordsmanship, Lightning Release, and invisibility. I'm a standard high-speed ninja."

"The person beside me is Yamanaka Seiichi. He has carried out missions with me before. He is a sensory-type ninja and also has the ability to communicate telepathically over long distances."

The two ninja selected by Uchiha Feiyu exchanged glances. The Hyuga Clan ninja was the first to speak. "My name is Hyuga Ichiro. Like ordinary members of the Hyuga Clan, I specialize in Gentle Fist and sensory abilities."

The other Konoha Ninja spoke as well. "My name is Ito Ryoma. I specialize in Earth Release Ninjutsu and taijutsu. I also know some Medical Ninjutsu, including the Delicate Illness Extraction Technique and the Mystical Palm Technique."

The Delicate Illness Extraction Technique was a natural enemy of poison. With this Ninjutsu, as long as treatment was handled properly in the early stages, there was no need to worry about poisoning. It was just that there were far too few ninja who knew this technique. Otherwise, Sunagakure's poisons would not have become so feared.